‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ Pulls a Weekend Three-Peat With Fans

Ralph Breaks the Internet kept the Grinch at bay—by a narrow margin—to score its third-straight box-office win, leading a slow weekend as North American movie fans focused on awards contenders and girded for a series of big holiday releases.

Walt Disney Co.’s animated sequel collected $16.1 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, Comscore estimated in an email Sunday; that’s about $1 million more than Universal Pictures’ The Grinch, now in its fifth week. Ralph has generated an estimated $258.2 million worldwide through Sunday, Disney said.

Ralph Breaks the Internet was forecast to take in $16.8 million by analysts at Box Office Pro. It’s the first weekend in 10 months when there wasn’t a movie hauling in more than $20 million.

A re-release of Schindler’s List on its 25th anniversary opened in about 1,000 locations and garnered $550,000 for Universal Pictures. Bohemian Rhapsody from Fox and Green Book from Universal benefited from Golden Globes nominations last week.

The award hopefuls Vox Lux, with Natalie Portman, and Mary Queen of Scots, with Margot Robbie, opened in limited release.

The next two weeks feature big releases such as Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Once Upon a Deadpool from Fox, Warner Bros.’ Aquaman and Mary Poppins Returns from Disney.